The Manteca Noon Kiwanis is looking for extra hands to help "stuff" approximately 8,000 to 10,000 eggs that will be used in the Saturday, April 3, annual Easter Egg Hunt that the club has been sponsoring every year for nearly three decades.

Manteca is spending $48,700 to find out if there are better ways to do more with less when it comes to everything the streets and water service to garbage collection, vehicle maintenance, and sewer service.

Poag & McEwen promised that The Promenade Shops at Orchard Valley - when completed - would have a "warm downtown feeling" where people would be encouraged to stroll leisurely between stores, enjoy water features and sit beneath shade trees.

The departure of eight municipal employees in the coming weeks - from two police officers to a parks worker - means Manteca will just have $3.8 million left to cut in order to balance the budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

LATHROP - A noontime structure fire Friday in Lathrop, with black smoke visible from the east side of Manteca, claimed the lives of two dogs and two cockatiels that had been left in the home while the owner was away.

When Richard Perez was in his early 30s he had a vision. God came into his room, lifted him up out of bed and took him into his kid's room. There, God told Perez that he needed to change the harmful direction of his life or he would find his kids were no longer a part of his life. The vision shook Perez. He'd never experienced anything like it. Yet, he found it difficult to comply. He wasn't ready to pull away from the road of destruction he'd been on since his teen years.

LATHROP – Over the course of the last six months the Lathrop City Council has approved spending just over $191,000 for a restroom at River Park South, the demolition and reconstruction of the 7th Street Skate Park, study space at City Hall and solar lighting at Woodfield Park.

Ninety-one entries in the weekend's Almond Blossom Festival Art Show drew a number of awards for their artworks and photographs. Noted artist Dan Petersen said he had fun judging the show, adding that it has improved much in the past year.

Ray Joseph, 20, of Sacramento, has been sentenced to 27 years in state prison for the attempted murder of a Manteca couple as they slept in their bed at their home on Victory Avenue in September of 2013.